JavaScript Comes To Minecraft

mikejuk writes "JavaScript is the language of the client and it is becoming the language of the server. Now it seems set to be the language of Minecraft. ScriptCraft is a Minecraft mod that can be added to the game to allow the player to use JavaScript commands. Walter Higgins ported the Rhino JVM implementation of JavaScript in a few spare weeks over Xmas. Some additional JavaScript classes allow the construction of blocks making it possible to automate construction. It also provides a 'turtle like' drone class that makes it easier to move in 3D. It makes use of a fluent API to create a domain specific language for movement. As its creator says: 'Ultimately I think the ScriptCraft mod could be used to take building in Minecraft to a whole new level. With a full-blown language at the Player's disposal, it should be possible to create not just castles and forts but entire road networks and cities.' Most importantly of all, it not only pushes the boundary of Minecraft, it also provides a way to get kids who are already hooked on Minecraft to start learning JavaScript."

You can do this in Java already?

[shaitand]

You can already do all this in Java. What is the benefit of exposing players to the wonder of javascript via minecraft vs exposing them to the wonders of java via minecraft? Either one is a POS.

I wish someone would do a C rewrite. People make excuses about the fully manipulable world and such but the reality is that there is nothing going on in minecraft that would make it tax a Pentium 3 without no gpu offloading had it been authored well in a decent language.

Don't get me wrong it's a great game and fun to play. The implementation just leaves a lot to be desired. Buggy as hell too but you can't blame that on the language!

Re:You can do this in Java already?

[timeOday]

I'm delighted that Minecraft is in Java because my son plays it all the time, it's more constructive than other games, and it also happens to be just about the ONLY game that will run on our computer, because it's Linux. (Well, flash web games work too, and Club Penguin had a healthy run at our place... but I doubt Flash is what you are advocating).

OK, I realize there has been some variety of games over the years which were released for Linux like quake 3. But as for games on Linux that are actually currently popular, and which people playing on different OS can link up and talk to each other, there are extremely few.

I am amused

[Windwraith]

I find it amusing that this is news but what about LuaForge [github.com]? It allows you to do Minecraft stuff in Lua, a language that can't be easier to learn, and is also pretty fast out of the box.

Re:You can do this in Java already?

[Pieroxy]

There's nothing inherently special about Java that makes it able to run games on Windows/Linux any more than C/C++.

Holy fucking Jesus Christ, you haven't learned much in all that time have you? There is a hell of a lot more in Java. I once saw a (server-side) project of about 100k classes go from Java 1.3 32bit on Windows to Java 1.4 64bit on Solaris without even needing a recompilation. The stuff just worked.

This is miles and miles away from what it would have meant in C or C++, and you know it. Of course, C and/or C++ done properly can achieve something that is portable, but at least your most common data type doesn't change whenever you change the number of fucking bits in your CPU. Not mentioning the stability of the APIs whenever you want to do anything vaguely more complex than fopen.